Popular Front for Democratic Socialism
Beginnings The party was founded in 2572. It has close connections to the defunct People's Socialist Front of Aloria and the Rutenian Socialist Liberation Front. While the founding congress was still debating the first party programme, it became clear that the party wouud espouse radical socialist and Marxist aims, methods, ideology and analytical tools. However, in contrast to the PSFA, which was highly doctrinal and militarist, the PFDS is a more 'liberal' party in respect to human rights and much more pacifist. A few months after its founding, the party participated in the 2573 elections, gaining 29 seats out of 400 in the Imperial Chamber. The party then faced the challenging question of organising its own structure. A huge majority of members voted for a collective leadership, in the form of a Central Committee. But, because it would be hard for all Central Committee members to attend formal occasions, a Chairman of the Central Committee was also elected, who organises debates in the C.C. and represents the party at formal occasions. The Parliamentary Party also elected a First Secretary in order to organise the Parliamentary Party into an effective opposition. In the first elections, most Central Committee members espoused luxemburgist, democratic socialist, trotskyist and other anti-stalinist views. This made it clear that the PFDS was fully committed to democratic socialism, not authoritarian state capitalism. In this period, the party introduced many proposals to the Imperial Chamber which reflected this, such as calling for all forms of direct discipline to be abolished at school. The first elections brought two trotskyists to the most public positions of the PFDS: Isaac Deutscher was elected as First Secretary of the Parliamentary Party, and Ernest Mandel was elected as Chairman of the Central Committee. After the April 2576 elections it managed to get enough votes to be the second largest party in the Hobrazian parliament, gaining almost a quater of the total votes cast. In the elections for the Emperor Elect, the PFDS also managed to gain 33% of the votes cast in the second round, as the only opposition to the candidate of the First Party of Hobrazia, which held this position for a long time. In this period, the party was trying to increase its support base and end the WSS!P/FPoH coalition, which was also later joined by the Hobrazian Peoples Party, as it became clear that these two coalition parterns on their own would not have a majority. It is was also pushing to turn Hobrazia into a full republic, ending the various references and allusions to 'empire' and 'imperial' that the constitution contained. The party was also pushing for democratic and socialist reforms, aimed at expanding civil liberties and overcoming capitalism. The second phase of the party's development starts after this big election victory. Election Defeats of 2579 and 2582 - Reshaping of the Party The party suffered a minor defeat in the election of 2579, as it lost a couple of seats. But after this election, a liberal party was founded in Hobrazia, which attracted many voters away from the PFDS because of its 'liberal' positions on matters like gay rights, civil rights, etc., and in the 2582 elections this translated into a humiliating defeat where the PFDS lost half of its seats. This marked a bitter defeat after the initial gains of the 2576 election. In the Hobrazian Imperial Chamber, the Liberal Party of Hobrazia had replaced the PFDS as Hobrazia's second biggest party, and the PFDS came in second-last this time, just before the We Say So! Party. In an attempt to respond to this shift of 'liberal' voters away from the PFDS, the party decided to restructure itself around its hard-core of communist/socialist voters who were clearly anti-militarist, internationalist, left-wing and socially liberal. This was started with the creation of the Communist Party of Hobrazia (PFDS), which was initially still fully under the control of the PFDS leadership. The party hoped to recover some of its losses in the next election with this new image, as a clearly communist/socialist party. The aim of the party during these times was to retain the PFDS as a popular front/federation for all organisations associated with the Communist Party of Hobrazia (PFDS), such as youth leagues, trade unions, etc., but to move the real political leadership and structures to the CPH (PFDS). This was aimed for after the 2585 elections. Also, the system of 'full' and 'associate' members of the C.C. was phased out, with all members of the C.C. of the PFDS being elected on a one-member one-vote system. Revolutionary Defence Commmittees were also established nationwide as a response to the Liberal Party's initiative to make the CPH and other parties refuse to ever form militias, through a resolution which had strong anti-communist rhetoric. These committees were dibanded after the Liberal Party disbanded itself. Until the Liberal Party disbanded itself before the 2593 elections, it quickly rose from a newely formed party to become the strongest single force in Hobrazian politics, even managing to replace the First Party of Hobrazia as the party to supply the Emperor Elect. It fought hard against the established parties of Hobrazia and even wanted to launch procedures against the former Emperor Elect of the First Party. These moves made it hard for the Liberal Party to find coaliition partners. New Phase after Liberal Party disbanded, possible admission of the Christian Socialist Party After the 2590 elections, the Liberal Party of Hobrazia suprisingly disbanded. This left again the socially liberal voters inclined to vote for the CPH (PFDS). This was apparent by the fact that the CPH (PFDS) became the third largest overall party and the largest left-wing party at the 2593 elections with 56 seats. This was also its third-best ever national result, after several 'years in the wilderness' during which the Liberal Party competed successfully with the CPH's socially liberal voters. The reformation of the Christian Socialist Party and the rapid warming of relations between the CPH and the CSP and the possibility of the CSP joining the PFDS have meant the possibility of a new phase for the PFDS. The leadership of the CPH worked on setting up an independent PFDS leadership and seperating the two organisation's structures from each other to the extent necessary for another party to join the PFDS. The two parties leaderships organized the details of the alliance and on a possible 'unification congress'. Structure In the years after its founding, the PFDS used a one vote per member system to elect 51 'full' C.C. members. 49 additional 'associate' members were elected by block-voting by the civil platforms, trade unions, etc. that were affiliated with the PFDS. This is was a temporary measure as the PFDS planed to phase out the associate members in favor of a complete 'one member one vote' system for the Central Committee, in which individual members of the associate organisations would be able to vote. The associate members of the C.C. could vote on all issues except party internal affairs. The debates and agenda of the Central Committee were set by the Chairman, who would represents the party at formal occasions and other times when the full C.C. could not attend. The Chairman of the C.C. was also the PFDS candidate for Emperor Elect, although the PFDS was opposed to this title, preferring republicanism. The Parliamentary Party was headed by the First Secretary, who had similar duties as the Chairman of the C.C., except that those duties binded him to the Parliamentary Party. In the case that the PFDS provided the Head of Government, the First Secretary would have been given this post. With the restructuring after the 2582 election defeat, the associate member system for the C.C. was fully phased out and all members of the party voted for 99 democratically elected members of the C.C. that had fully voting rights. The other systems for the structure of the party remained the same, except the addition that they all also functioned for the newly created Communist Party of Hobrazia (PFDS), with the First Secretary, Chairman of the C.C., and the C.C. of the PFDS effectively acting in the same roles for the Communist Party of Hobrazia (PFDS). The party planned at this point to fully move the leadership into the CPH (PFDS), and establish a partially seperate leadership for the PFDS. The necessity of seperating the structures of both organisations became evident once the possibility of the Christian Socialist Party joining the PFDS arose. Category:Political parties in Hobrazia